


Fight for a Future

by callmemal



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Coming Out, Fights, Flash Forward, Hiatus, M/M, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 05:44:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5731591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmemal/pseuds/callmemal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My name is Liam Payne, but you can also call me Daddy Direction. I love taking care of this band, but sometimes, taking care of the band means taking care of us boys first. Louis and Harry deserve to come out, and we all deserve freedom from Modest. It's gonna take a fight, but it will be worth it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fight for a Future

I’ve always been the responsible one, the safe one, the one who tended to focus more on what was the smart choice for the band instead of the big risks. Someone had to do it. Someone had to watch out for the good of the band and make sure we didn’t go off the rails; that would be far too easy as a bunch of teenage boys. And I knew that the other boys weren’t going to do it. It just wasn’t in their nature. This is what I’ve wanted my whole life, so I couldn’t sleep at night if I thought we were at risk of blowing everything. So, no, it never bothered me when the lads started calling me “Daddy Direction.” I’ve always been proud of the fact that I have this role. Plus, it came with a level of respect, because everyone knows I’m the one who makes sure we don’t do anything too stupid. They trust my opinion, and they trust that I’ll take care of the band. From pretty much the very beginning of our career, that has been my job, my number one priority.

Don’t get me wrong, I still care about the boys, and I want the best for them as individuals as much as I do the band as a whole. At first, that was easy to balance, because the needs of the band and the needs of us boys lined up pretty much evenly. But it was when Harry and Louis came out to me, Niall, and Zayn during a band meeting - though, let’s be honest, it wasn’t exactly a surprise - that things got complicated. They’re my brothers, and I wanted them to be happy, but I knew that our management was going to be angry that two members of the biggest boyband in the world, a band whose biggest market was lovesick teenage girls, were gay and in a relationship. Richard, Harry, and the rest of Modest managed to hold them off for a while. “A profit destroyer,” they called it. “You’ll commit career suicide,” Harry and Louis were warned. “Don’t risk ruining what a good thing you have. Think about the other boys,” the pair were advised.

Louis and Harry listened to management for a while, because they care about the success of the band as much as anyone, but when the rumors about the two of them got serious, they wanted to just come out with the truth. We knew how loyal our fans are and how much they love us, so they stopped buying into the idea that our careers would be over if they came out to the public. They pleaded with the staff at Modest to let them come out, practically begging them to adjust their contracts and let them be happy.

That was when things got ugly. The threats, the punishment, the destruction of their public images, it all exploded in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, Louis had a “girlfriend” and scripts to follow to sell the story, and Harry was forced to become a “womanizer” and had more romances in the next few years than most people have pairs of shoes. Niall, Zayn, and I hated every second of it for them, and we’ve all done our best to support them, even though it meant we got punishments of our own. They decided to make me the homophobe of the group, which is insulting and laughable at the same time. I think it was because I went to bat for Louis and Harry nearly every time they had to have a “talk” with management about “not keeping up appearances.”

One of those “talks” happened at the end of May 2015. We had just flown back to the UK to leave for the next leg of our On the Road Again tour after staying in LA to record _Made in the A.M._ for the better part of two months, and Louis, Harry, Niall, and I were at dinner when Louis got a call. It was Richard’s assistant telling him that he and Harry were being summoned to yet another meeting with Richard the next day at 11:00 am. Louis knew he had no choice but to at least show up, and Niall and I knew that we weren’t going to let our brothers and best friends take this on alone. 

This is how, the next day, we found ourselves shut in Richard’s office. Louis and Richard were practically chest-to-chest, stuck in the same fight they’d been having for years. Louis was always the confrontational one. I think it was his instinctual need to protect Harry that made him take on all the fights, because he wanted to shield his love, whom we all knew is very much the more vulnerable and sensitive one. Harry was right next to him, but Niall and I were in the back of the room just waiting to see how this argument would end and if we were needed.

“I’m the one in charge here, Louis! When you signed that contract, you gave us the right to manage your lives! I’ve been in this business many years, and I’m telling you that I know what it takes to succeed!” Richard shouted, using his height advantage to tower over Louis in an attempt to intimidate him.

It’s too bad for him that Louis does not get intimidated. He yelled right back, “I don’t care about some damn piece of paper! I don’t care what you think about being in charge of our lives! Harry and I are not going to stop being in love just because you tell us to!” I smiled at that last sentence; anyone who knows Louis knows that you could get him to jump off a bridge before you could get him to leave Harry.

“You better care about that ‘damn piece of paper,’ boy! Your signature on that paper means you agreed to the terms we set out for you. One of those terms means you follow our guidelines for your public appearance, and that appearance does not involve you being gay!”

Louis let out an almost animalistic scream. “God, Richard, it’s not like we’re making out onstage! Nothing we do onstage can be absolute proof that we’re in a relationship!”

“Tell me you are not actually that naive,” Richard retorted. “The longer this goes on, the more godforsaken rumors show up. You might as well just wear neon signs saying you’re screwing each other and make it official.”

Louis gave Richard his trademark defiant smirk and asked, “Is that what you think about, Richard? Do you want details? I’d be happy to tell you all about how Harry got on top of me just last night and rode me —.”

“STOP IT!” Richard shouted. Harry turned six shades of red, I was doing everything I could not to bust out laughing, and Niall pretty much looked like he’d seen a ghost. We love the boys, but the last thing we needed was to hear details about their sex life. I did enjoy watching Louis make Richard freak out like that, though.

“What? You seem so interested in whether or not people know Harry and I have sex, I thought I would just let you know what really happens in our bed at night.” I could tell just from the tone of his voice that Louis was feeling really proud of himself right about then.

“NO. NEVER talk about that EVER. I don’t want to hear you discussing that ever, not with me, not with anyone here, not with the media, and certainly not your fans!”

For the first time since the argument had started, Harry spoke. “You know nothing about our fans,” he replied as he rolled his eyes. 

“What’s that?” Richard sneered, raising his eyebrows. “You think I don’t know your fans? I MADE your fanbase! I made everything about you! I made it so people would even pay attention to you! Without me, you wouldn’t be the biggest band in the world! You’d just be two little queers!”

“You didn’t make us!” Louis screamed louder than ever. “We made us! You’re just along for the ride because Simon stuck us with you! We’re the ones who spend every minute of our lives practicing and promoting and recording and touring and everything else to make people know us! We put in the work so don’t you even fucking dare take credit for what we’ve given everything to!”

Richard laughed like the maniacal villain you hear in Disney movies. He stepped slowly towards Louis until he was practically bent over him. Softly, he snarled, “You’re right on that one, boy. Simon did stick you with me. I have the power because of those contracts. I own you for as long as those contracts are valid. I have ten more months of telling you what to say and do in public. I _own you_.”

Harry shoved Richard backwards, away from Louis. “You may control our actions, but you do not and cannot control the way we feel about each other.” Harry was always the more collected one of those two, which is why he never seemed to raise his voice, even under attack.

“I wish I could. The last thing we need is you two faggots ruining everything because of your need to bone each other,” he retorted.

“Who says they’re ruining anything?!” Niall finally snapped, and we both stepped forward to join Harry and Louis. 

“I DID!” yelled Richard. “This brand is built on the little girls who buy your music being in love with you! Are you four stupid enough to believe they’ll still want to buy your music when two of you are gay?”

“You’re the idiot for thinking that’s the only reason our fans like us or buy our music,” I explained as calmly as I could. “You’ve never talked to our fans. We have.”

“So you’re telling me finding out these two fairies are dating each other isn’t going to do anything to your record sales? How about all the parents who won’t want their kids buying your records or concert tickets because they’re gay?” Richard queried.

Louis snapped, “Stop with the names, would you? Insulting us isn’t going to make us cower at your feet.”

“You can call us faggots, queers, fairies, fudge packers, benders, it’s not going to make a bit of difference,” added Harry. “You may own our image, but you own nothing about our relationship. Louis and I,” Niall and I looked down simultaneously to see him grab Louis’s hand, “are together. We have been for years. And the world is going to find out about it sooner or later, whether you like it or not.” I could see every vein in Richard’s head throbbing, and I couldn’t help but grin, because God, do I love pissing him off.

“Not for the next ten months, they won’t. They better not. I’ll take you to court for breach of your contracts, and you don’t want half the things I have on you to come out. Don’t forget everything I’ve done to protect you and your good-boy images,” Richard said haughtily.

Louis laughed hysterically, and I was on the verge, too. “Protect us? We wouldn’t have dealt with so much shit if it weren’t for you. We’d do better with just about any other management in this business, and you’ll lose your little cash cow,” Louis responded, and Harry, Niall, and I nodded in agreement. “That’s all we are to you, a cash cow, not your clients. We’re not even human to you. We’re just some machine that you work for all it can give.”

Richard rolled his eyes. “Don’t act like you’re victims when you’re the richest, most popular band on the planet…I’ve had enough of this. Listen closely, you little fags. You _will_ tone down your gay antics onstage, or I will _ruin you_. I have every major website on speed dial. I can destroy you like that,” he snapped his fingers, “so you better get your shit together. I can make everything you’ve gained go away before you know what hit you.” He leaned against his desk with a smug look on his face that I wanted nothing more than to smack right off it. So I did the next best thing, one that wouldn’t get me arrested for assault.

“HEY!” I stepped forward, shouting right in his face. “Do you think we’re actually idiotic enough to believe that? Louis’s right; we’re just a cash cow to you, so there’s no way in the world you would destroy your biggest moneymaker. You may be a complete ass, Richard, but you’re not stupid. Here’s the thing you seem to be forgetting: we are the moneymakers here. _You_ depend on _us_. You may own our contracts for now, but we can switch companies next year, and we’ll still be the richest, most popular band on the planet, and you’ll just be an angry, old man who was dumb enough to piss us off. You better get used to that idea, too, because if you don’t stop with the bullying and insulting Louis and Harry because of who they are, we’ll be gone, and Modest will be just one of many management companies that no one really cares about.”

“We may have been easy to control when you met us because we were teenagers and inexperienced, but we know what we’re doing now,” Niall reminded him.

“We’re leaving. And you’re not going to try to stop us,” Louis finished, and I ushered everyone out the door of his office without another word.

We already had plans to go back to my house for lunch that day after the meeting, because we had learned from previous experience that we needed to keep an eye on Louis after these confrontations for a bit, at least until he cooled down. It was never a good idea to leave him to his own devices when he was upset. Harry was in the kitchen with me, and we were making spaghetti and garlic bread because it’s Louis’s favorite meal for Harry to make. Niall was in the den with Louis, listening to him rant and slowly trying to get him to calm down. Niall was always the mood creator and the peacemaker when one of us was upset, so we knew it was smart to leave him with Louis while we made lunch.

I could hear him yelling about Richard and how terrible he was the entire time we were cooking, but by the time we sat down to eat, the whole table was silent. Louis complimented and thanked us for the food, but other than that, all four of us kept our heads down and ate. The only movement was when Harry reached over and laid his hand gently on Louis’s thigh every so often and Louis glanced back and smiled softly at him each time; it was like they were having an entire conversation with just their eyes. 

Louis finished his food first, dropped his plate in the sink, and headed towards the den. One by one, we headed in there to join in him. He was sprawled out on the couch with his head in Harry’s lap, Niall was in one of the recliners, and I sat on the floor facing all of them. We all sat there awkwardly staring at each other. I wasn’t sure what to say, even though I knew I needed to. I always feel this responsibility to fix problems - I guess it’s part of me being Daddy Direction - but I knew that there was nothing I could say to fix this. I was hoping Louis or Harry would say something first. They needed to call the play; it was their lives on the line and their story to tell. 

Finally, Louis sighed heavily and said, “I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

Harry, who had been running his fingers through Louis’s hair, stopped and looked down. “What?”

Louis sat up, turned, and grabbed Harry’s hand. “All of this, it’s just getting to be _so much_. I’m tired of working every second of every day with no time to breathe. I’m tired of those assholes directing our every move and trying to take credit for what we’ve done. But mostly, I’m tired of lying to everyone and pretending we’re not who we are,” he explained, and Harry nodded in understanding.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

“I’m pretty worn out, too,” said Niall.

“I think we all should be by now. It’s been five years of nonstop work. This machine is running out of oil. Something’s got to change,” I added.

“But the contracts,” Harry interjected. “Zayn had to pay huge money to get out. Can’t we just hang on for a bit longer? March isn’t that far away,” Louis rolled his eyes, except this time, I could tell it was more despondently instead of out of anger.

“Harry’s right,” I said. “The publicity would be awful if the focus was on us fighting with Modest instead of the end of the tour. We’ve worked too hard not to finish this on a high note.”

Niall sat forward and asked, “So what about when the contracts run out? What can we do then?” 

“Well, there’s no way in hell we’re renewing with these goons,” I told him. 

“Obviously not,” said Harry, “but are we going to keep running full speed ahead? It’s been _five years_.”

Louis shook his head emphatically. “I need a break, boys. I need sleep. I need to breathe. I need not to feel like my whole life is being owned by someone else.”

“I don’t want to give all of this up, though. We’ve worked so hard to get here. We have an amazing life. This is what we’ve all wanted,” I countered.

“And the fans,” added Niall, “they’ve been so amazing. They’re as strong as ever. Can we really just take their dedication and then tear ourselves away and drop out of the picture?”

“I’m not saying I want the band to end,” Louis explained. “I’m just saying I need some time off. Wouldn’t it be nice to spend more than a few days at a time with our families? Without having to worry about where we’re being jetted off to next?” Niall and I nodded.

Then, Harry said what I knew we were all thinking. “And we could finally come out with the truth about us.” 

“Yes! EXACTLY!” Louis shouted. “We can tell the truth and take some time away from being in the press every second of every day and just be _us_.”

I responded, “You know that Niall and I will back you however you want to go about this.”

“Yeah, absolutely,” Niall agreed. “We’ll stand behind you all the way. You deserve to be happy. And the more I think about it, the nicer some time off sounds.”

“I’m only talking about a year, 18 months max, just enough time to catch my breath. I want to keep making music together for as long as the fans will have us…I just need some time to be me and not who other people want me to be,” Louis reassured us.

“Agreed,” Niall, Harry, and I said in unison.

“Let’s keep this to ourselves for a bit, though, okay, boys? We don’t need the whole world getting in a frenzy yet,” I proposed. “Let’s all get some cool heads, and then make sure we feel this way after a little while. We’re all fired up after what happened this morning.” The three of them nodded; I knew they trusted me as Daddy Direction. I stood up and motioned for them to come to me, and they did. We wrapped our arms around each other. “No matter what, we’ve got to make a promise right now to each other - that we’re in this together to the end. We need to promise that when all else fails, we’ve got each other’s backs. We started together, and we need to stay together, break or no break.”

“Promise.”

“Definitely.” 

“Absolutely.”

We put our hands together in the middle of the circle, just like our ritual before every show. The difference was that this time, it felt like we were ending a performance we’d been stuck in for years instead of putting on a new one. As I looked around at my three brothers, I just knew that somehow, we were going to be fine.

Fast forward two years, and our whole worlds had changed. Louis and Harry came out in an interview with Barbara Walters two months after our contracts with Syco and Modest ended, and that storm somehow stirred up old rumors about me and Zayn. None of us had spoken to him much since he left the band, but we were forced to reunite in order to shut that down. Things got easier between us after that, but he was still very much into his own career taking off, so it was nothing like it used to be; by that point, I think we had all accepted it never would be the same. Then, aside from a holiday together after going through the boys going public, we all spent the year pretty much solely with our families; although, by that point, our families were friends, so we still got together on occasion.

By the summer of 2017, we were slowly starting the comeback for the band. We had a new deal with the Azoffs, who were much more open to us running our own lives. We wrote songs for a new record as they came to us, with no pressure to meet a deadline since we weren’t officially back yet, so we still had time and freedom to enjoy life as part of our hiatus. All four of us, we were happy again. Louis and Harry weren’t just free from their closet; we were all free from the binds of being controlled by people who cared nothing about who we are as people. While two years before, we were desperate for a break, then, we were getting excited to get back to work. 

The next spring, our sixth album came out, and for all the records the first five had set, our fans proved that they were stronger than ever and broke nearly every single one of them. And when we hit the first awards show after its release and ran into Richard, there supporting his other acts, we couldn’t help but smile.

We smiled because we were right.

We smiled because we knew our fans all along.

We smiled because Harry and Louis were out, and things had only gotten better.

There was no denying that the past eight years held a whole lot of history, but one thing was for sure: this was not the end.

**Author's Note:**

> So there you have it. My second one-off. The reference here at the end about Louis and Harry coming out to Barbara Walters is because I wanted to tie it into my first fic "Finally Free". Check that out if you so choose. And as always, I would love your feedback and comments. I'm still getting used to writing 1D fanfic. Thanks, lovelies! xo


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